Hello. I just got my new Zen X-Fi (32 GB) yesterday, and was really looking forward to trying it out since my last player is a Zen Xtra which is starting not to work as well as it once did. Once I installed the software on my laptop and plugged in the player, however, it wouldn't charge. The little red LED that should flash doesn't come on at all. The player shows up on the computer as "USB Human Interface Device" but isn't actually recognized as a media player. I left it charging all night - still nothing has happened. Today, I tried connecting it to a desktop computer in case it was a problem with my laptop's USB - nothing happened. I also tried it on my father's laptop, nothing - just exactly what happened on mine.

If it matters, my specs are:

Vista Home Premium, 64-bit
Centrino2Duo @ 2.2GHZ
2GB RAM

The other laptop is Windows XP SP2, so it doesn't seem to be a Vista problem as far as I can tell.

Is there any way to fix this, or do I just need to send it back and get a replacement? I ordered it from Newegg, if that matters. I'd rather not have to, though - if it's avoidable, since I'd still have to pay for shipping. Would buying the wall adapter help at all, or does it sound like the player is just defective?

Will it allow you to update the firmware? Also, some of my older Zens didnt start charging for up to 10 mins because they were completely dead. maybe just leave it plugged in for like 30 min to see if it starts charging. If not it may be defective =\

For whatever strange reason, the computers are pulling up the wrong driver for your player. Do you have access to a computer running Vista? If so, try plugging your player into that, without any of the Creative software installed, and see what happens.

Also, does your player turn on at all? If so, try booting it into Recovery Mode (see your player's documentation for how to do this - it usually involves pressing and holding the reset button or key combination, holding the power button/switch, and letting go of the reset button), plugging it in, and seeing what happens then.

I have 3 new chargers, none of which are working on my 16Gb ZEN X-Fi.
Two are motorola:
5A-550mA and 5A-850mA
The other is a Coby USB wall charger. 5A-1A.

If I plug these in while my zen is off, the "CREATIVE" text flashes on the black screen, once, and the green light near the headphone port comes on for about 2 seconds, and then turns off. My zen will not power up until i remove the charger from its port.

any ideas? Can i leave my zen chargin on one of these for a while to see if it starts accepting the charge without worry?
I hate to drop $30+ on a "ZEN" charger from creative.

Hello flybox. Welcome. Do you mean 5V and not 5A? How does the Zen react if you plug the charger in when the Zen is already on?

It looks as though Creative has decided to revert back to their shady practices of requiring enumeration before allowing proper charging (More info here) just like with the Zen Micro line of players. What a huge disappointment this is!

__________________.~Light travels faster than sound, which is why some people appear to be bright until they speak~

I have a 16gb X-fi which I love. My previous Creative player was a Zen Neeon for which I bought the official Creatve wall charger (the white one). My plan is obviously to use the charger with the X-fi too.

However, the X-fi seems to exhibit some strange behaviour when I plug it in.

If the device is off and I plug the charger in, the screen flickers a bit and charging icon comes on to show its charging. After a while (an hour or so) the screen appears to be off which would suggest its finished charging. If I turn the X-fi on it continues charging for a further hour or so and then the "plugged in" icon eventually displays.

If the device is on it seems to charge fine and the "plugged in" icon eventually appears.

The thing is that I prefer to plug it in over night and leave it to charge, right now Im not keen to do that in case its damaging the battery.

Does anyone else use a wall charger with their X-fi or Zen for that matter?

If the device is off and I plug the charger in, the screen flickers a bit and charging icon comes on to show its charging. After a while (an hour or so) the screen appears to be off which would suggest its finished charging. If I turn the X-fi on it continues charging for a further hour or so and then the "plugged in" icon eventually displays.

If the device is on it seems to charge fine and the "plugged in" icon eventually appears.

The thing is that I prefer to plug it in over night and leave it to charge, right now Im not keen to do that in case its damaging the battery.

The Universal charger should work. Make sure that you have disabled the Idle Timeout and Sleep Timer in case they are interfering.

Sleep Timer:
- On the main menu, select System -> Player Settings --> Sleep Timer

Idle Timer:

- On the main menu, select System -> Player Settings --> Idle Shutdown

__________________.~Light travels faster than sound, which is why some people appear to be bright until they speak~

We've had a few Creative Zen Micro's around the house that used the Creative Zen Wall Charger, (P/N AD2000002870, 5V, 1000mA). Back in those days, the wall charger came with the MP3 player.

Now we've added a new Zen X-Fi 8GB. I can't imagine any reason why the old Zen charger mentioned above wouldn't work on my new Zen X-Fi 8GB, but I'm wondering if any one has had charger experience with the Zen X-Fi ? Thus far, I haven't seen many Zen X-Fi specific comments on this thread. Perhaps a Zen is a Zen is a Zen when it comes to charging?

I did contact Creative support and basically got the "you should use a new charger" answer. Although they didn't care to elaborate why my old Zen Micro charger would not be acceptable. My hunch is that it's revenue related.

All of your great insights are appreciated. Happy New Year, everyone.

Thanks, - tim

MOD EDIT: Post moved to the Zen X-Fi forum and merged with existing Charger thread.

Thanks for the quick feedback, and additional thanks for throwing me into the proper thread. Based on the previous posts to this thread it sounds like results on Zen X-Fi's are unpredictable, at best. How sad.

Your comment about "not feeling compfortable connecting a Zen X-Fi to a 1A charger at this time" - does that mean if I had some sort of 500mA charger, perhaps a cell phone charger, that you'd feel slightly more confident of that working? Or, are you pretty much thinking it's going to be the "Propriatary Creative Changer" route for the X-Fi?

And I read through the description of "enumeration". Whew, my head hurts now, but thanks for the insights.

I really wish Creative would spill the beans about what's going on with X-Fi charging.